Complaining in a Positive Tone

I just attempted to write a blog entry in third person, complaining about how feminist and gender queer blog entries sometimes become very dark. Generalizing the bleak, derogatory abyss of <insert links to unnecessarily negative blogs here>, you find articles ranging from mild, that cast blame for how people feel when they're exposed to adversity, to vile articles, that blame others for existing as they are (Or, if we try to look at them more positively: as in their very existence makes me feel bad about myself by comparison, not because they are bad to exist, but because the world is unfair). They range from mopey yet fairly compassionate to people of various identities () to predominately hateful and loathing (). The latter make me feel, perhaps unsurprisingly, hate-filled and loathsome. Here was the start to that blog entry, and I really wanted to keep going, but it was just so hard. It's much easier to rant than it is to write a constructive commentary on the nature of a discussion.

     "Reading a number of feminist and LGBT centric blog posts over the past several years, most of them have the right idea, focusing on awareness and empowerment of groups that have traditionally been underserved and underrepresented. The spirt of the movement seems to be about empowering individuals to live life as they feel compelled to live. Certainly, we all want the freedom to experience the world and interact with others in constructive, mutually beneficial ways, and some groups have been historically, systematically excluded from flowing through society in that way. Emphasizing that fact is important, and should definitely continue to take center stage until it becomes a reality. And, that's where it could end.

     "Sometimes it does end there. Occasionally, though, it continues into shall we say, darker realms, where negativity creeps in and people are encouraged to feel that, simply because they are lucky, they are somehow inherently wrong or bad or evil. Recognizably, usually, the intent of these darker facets is to further the awareness of less well-know societal aspects by prompting the readers to self-examine and analyze how they personally affect and are affected by groups with whom they may otherwise have considered only briefly. This is reasonable, and it can be done in a more positive way. For example, it works to to tell stories where the reader identifies with the primary actor and in which the primary actor goes through a transformative experience in relation to the subject matter. Alternatively, direct questions and answers based on personal experience are a good way to provide perspective. Do you know anyone who is homosexual? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be physically intimate with someone in order to share a human experience, even if that person is different from you in ways of which you have little understanding? Have you ever tried or even considered being someone you just met and who compulsively repulses you because of who they are? Are you repulsed because that's who you are, or are you repulsed because you have yet to fathom who they are?"

Empower Yourself

Reading a number of feminist and LGBT centric blog posts over the past several years, most of them have the right idea, focusing on awareness and empowerment of groups that have traditionally been underserved and underrepresented. The spirt of the movement seems to be about empowering individuals to live life as they feel compelled to live. Certainly, we all want the freedom to experience the world and interact with others in constructive, mutually beneficial ways, and some groups have been historically, systematically excluded from flowing through society in that way. Emphasizing that fact is important, and should definitely continue to take center stage until it becomes a reality. And, that's where it could end.

Sometimes it does end there. Occasionally, though, it continues into shall we say, darker realms, where negativity creeps in and people are encouraged to feel that, simply because they are lucky, they are somehow inherently wrong or bad or evil. Recognizably, usually, the intent of these darker facets is to further the awareness of less well-know societal aspects by prompting the readers to self-examine and analyze how they personally affect and are affected by groups with whom they may otherwise have considered only briefly. This is reasonable, and it can be done in a more positive way. For example, it works to to tell stories where the reader identifies with the primary actor and in which the primary actor goes through a transformative experience in relation to the subject matter. Alternatively, direct questions and answers based on personal experience are a good way to provide perspective. Do you know anyone who is homosexual? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be physically intimate with someone in order to share a human experience, even if that person is different from you in ways of which you have little understanding? Have you ever tried or even considered being someone you just met and who compulsively repulses you because of who they are? Are you repulsed because that's who you are, or are you repulsed because you have yet to fathom who they are?

Gushing

2014-09-19. This is a public diary.

I love Emily Cook. A lot. She's the second person that I've really wanted all of, for whom I also theel that I know what all of is, to a significant degree.

And still, we are so different that any union is sure to be rife with compromises. Big important compromises: children, career, friendships, hobbies, etc. So why is it that one still wants something so fundamentally problematic. Is it timing, luck, fate or fortune? Is it biology, physiology or psychology? Is it romance, magic or something else?

I think for me it's balance. Being able to respect and identify with another competent, rational, intelligent human being and share our observations, thoughts and interpretations having them be different, even mutually exclusive, and yet still valid to each individual separately. Having the divergence be so close to the core, the most desirable, passionate relationships are inherently the most problematic. Hopefully I'm just too young and have yet to discover true love, something similar yet simpler.

Notes to Self

I'm making this into a public diary. It is not a blog. It is for me. It's public, perhaps selfishly, for me as well. Because I want to live without secrets, it is for me, my freedom.

The below content was written a few months ago and is unrelated to the above decision.

I received my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from UW Madison in 2010. Still trying to develop life goals, I worked at Epic in the Technical Services role for 2.8 years where I gained a wonderful respect and appreciation for technology's ability to transform entire sectors of the economy. In order to pursue a greater understanding of software and business, I left Epic and started work at EatStreet.com, a Madison startup creating an internet ordering platform for independent local restaurants and small chains. Currently, I do freelance work for another pre-market venture aimed at helping accounting practices go paper-free, while also continuing to learn and work at EatStreet.

Passion for understanding others' ideas, community, equality and global human development motivates me far more than money, influence, power and at times even more than relationships. At TEDx Madison 2014, I want to learn about and to try to understand other people's motivations, ideas and experiences and how they relate to my own passions and motivations. If requested, I would happily want to put together a talk on observations regarding current trends in the development of global human culture and society (diplomacy/international law, economic and financial trends, language/housing/clothing/food, technology, health, education, etc.; basically an overview of - as a species - where we've come from, where we are, and perhaps touching briefly on some places we might yet go); I would want to present it if I thought it was good enough and if others validated that opinion.